#TodaysReads: Rubik’s Anniversary, Tiny Chip Implant & more (20.5.14)

Rubik’s cube invention: 40 years old and never meant to be a toy I have only ever solved one of these once in my life. My editor has a system that usually allows him to work one out in minutes. I hate him so much :D. Yesterday was the toy’s 40th birthday. It joins only a handful of other toys that’ve made it that far such as Lego and Barbie.

What makes its success all the remarkable is that it did not start out as a toy. The Rubik’s cube was invented in 1974 by Erno Rubik, a Hungarian architect, who wanted a working model to help explain three-dimensional geometry.

A new method for wirelessly powering medical electronics like pacemakers and nerve stimulators could mean new possibilities for treating illnesses and mitigating pain. As reported in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a team led by Stanford electrical engineer Ada Poon constructed an electronic device smaller than a grain of rice that can be recharged wirelessly by a power source the size of a credit card.

Irony Alert: US Filing Criminal Charges Against China For CyberspyingThis stinks like political maneuvering by the Obama administration in light of the continuing Snowden revalations, which include saboutaging their own companies equipment, to say “Hey look, the Chinese are stealing from us too!!” The thing is, though the Chinese are a lot more accepting of this type of thing than Americans anything to help the Imperial Dragon grow.

“Giving is a political act, especially in a society where sex work is still stigmatized,” says Jeong. “Not being able to give to a cause or a person we believe in is a serious curtailment of political activities. And when only a handful of payment processors exist out there, their decisions to not process certain kinds of payments can have huge effects on the range of political expression.” That same point was made even more forcefully in 2010, when PayPal decided to cut off donations to WikiLeaks, spurring massive blowback and a sustained Anonymous campaign.